"This is England. Chances are it will all have disappeared by morning," he a.s.sured her evenly. "I thought you might enjoy looking at it while I serve up dinner."
"It"s beautiful." She nodded distractedly.
"I called the hospital and Gabriel while you were in the shower," Jonas told her as he walked back to the kitchen area. "There"s no change to Evan"s condition. Gabriel asked me to let him know when we had arrived safely at our destination."
"Thank you."
Jonas served up the steaks and baked potatoes onto two warmed plates. "He"s only a bossy b.a.s.t.a.r.d because he cares so much."
A smile curved Lily"s lips as she turned to look at him. "What"s your excuse?"
Jonas shrugged. "Guess it just comes naturally. Come and eat dinner before it gets cold."
A blush warmed Lily"s cheeks as she realized how her questioning him must have sounded as if she was asking for some sort of declaration of feelings for her on his part. Which was pretty ridiculous, considering the two of them had known each other only a short time. A traumatic time, admittedly, but still only a matter of hours in actual time.
Even if that sharp sting of tears at the thought of Jonas lying dead or injured somewhere indicated she already had feelings for him...
Her mind veered away from investigating those feelings too deeply. There was too much going on in her life at present to think clearly about anything other than staying one step ahead of her stalker.
"This looks delicious." She joined Jonas at the breakfast bar and found she actually felt hungry as she looked at the steak and potatoes he had cooked for them.
"Red wine? Or would you prefer hot tea?"
"Red wine, please." Maybe a couple of gla.s.ses of wine would help her to sleep tonight. She had a feeling the eerie silence here was going to keep her awake.
If the knowledge Jonas was sleeping in the bedroom just down the hallway hadn"t ensured that would be the case...
Jonas"s prediction about the snow had been wrong, Lily discovered when she woke the following morning and looked out the bedroom window to see at least six inches of the beautiful pristine white snow blanketing the ground.
It looked even more magical today. Like a scene from a Christmas card, the glistening snow covered the branches of the surrounding fir trees and lay heavy on the shed she could see across what she was sure was normally a swath of gra.s.s.
But this was England, and even though the snow seemed to have stopped falling for the moment, England wasn"t equipped to deal with anything more than a couple of inches snowfall. Even the main roads would be blocked until the snowplows were able to get to them, trains at a standstill, buses too. No one would be traveling very far in this weather.
Including my stalker, so get over it.
Every cloud-or snowfall-had its silver lining.
A glance at her wrist.w.a.tch showed Lily it was a little after eight o"clock in the morning, the time she normally woke.
Except there was nothing normal about waking up in Jonas"s log mansion miles from any other civilization. The two of them had retired to their separate bedrooms last night shortly after they finished eating. It had taken a while for Lily to fall asleep, but once she had, she"d slept reasonably well. Perhaps courtesy of those three gla.s.ses of wine she had drunk with her meal last night? Whatever the reason, she felt refreshed this morning and ready to face whatever was thrown at her today.
Although she would happily settle for that being only s...o...b..a.l.l.s...
She grinned at the thought of Jonas"s engaging in anything as juvenile as throwing s...o...b..a.l.l.s.
Jonas...
Much as she hadn"t wanted to think about her feelings for him last night, the thoughts had intruded anyway and were the reason it had taken her some time to fall asleep.
Jonas was very like her brothers in temperament: decisive, arrogant. The difference being that Jonas actually listened to her before he decided whether or not he was going to trample roughshod over any opinion she might care to voice.
Whatever the reason, she felt able to be herself around him, to say what she thought, and know that he would at least take that opinion on board before making any decision. He might still go with his original decision, but he would at least hear what she had to say first.
Talking of which...
The house seemed unnaturally quiet this morning. Even more so than last night, if that were possible. No doubt that silence was added to by that blanket of snow outside. Normally, Lily woke up to the sound of the London traffic below her bedroom window and the noise of the other residents in her apartment building as they prepared to leave for work.
Here, in the middle of nowhere, there was no sound. Only silence and stillness.
Much like the man who lived here.
Which brought her back full circle to Jonas.
All her thoughts now led back to Jonas.
Because she was already halfway in love with him?
Jonas was strength and power, but in that silent and still way that had nothing to do with his physical size. There was watchful confidence in those piercing blue eyes. A predatory stealth to his physical presence. Both those things exuded a "don"t mess with me" message.
Lily felt safe with him.
In regard to other people, at least.
Jonas had become temptation to her. Emotionally as well as physically.
But once this was over, he would return to his world and she would return to hers.
And most probably they would never meet again.
Which meant Lily had to guard her heart from falling for him too deeply. Or risk it being broken when he walked away, without so much as a backward glance. As she knew he would. Jonas was in his midthirties, had never married, had no permanent girlfriend-perhaps never had?-and the physical attraction between the two of them was for here and now. It had no future.
Which didn"t mean she couldn"t enjoy the here and now. And Jonas.
Except once again Jonas was nowhere to be found in the house when Lily emerged fully dressed from her bedroom and went in search of him. There was fresh coffee made in the kitchen and a loaf of bread left on one of the work tops, no doubt for toast if she wanted breakfast.
Instead, Lily bundled up against the cold in her winter coat and her ankle boots and went outside to look for him. The air was brisk and freezing cold, and she"d been right about the six inches of snow on the ground. There was only an inch or so to spare from the top of her boots when she placed her foot down in it.
Except the snow was completely pristine, no other footprints apart from her own to show that Jonas was out here. So where the h.e.l.l was he?
Lily stood in the snow and looked back toward the house. Which was when she saw that, although the main structure was all on one level, there was attic s.p.a.ce above, with a huge picture window on one side of the house. The six-inch layer of snow prevented her from seeing if there were any windows in the roof, but that didn"t mean there weren"t any. Could Jonas be up in the attic s.p.a.ce for some reason?
There was only one way to find out.
Chapter 8.
"There"s more snow forecast for later today."
Lily wasn"t surprised Jonas knew of her presence in the attic before she had a chance to speak to him. She hadn"t exactly been quiet in her climb up the metal spiral staircase.
It had taken her some time to find that staircase. A thorough search of the empty rooms downstairs had drawn a complete blank. There was no access to the attic s.p.a.ce above in any of them.
The only room left to try was Jonas"s bedroom.
Lily had taken a break to drink a cup of coffee and then taken another look for that access outside before venturing into the privacy of Jonas"s bedroom. And there it was, in the corner of the room, a spiral staircase leading up into the roof s.p.a.ce. The fact that it was hidden away in Jonas"s bedroom probably meant no one else was supposed to go up there but him.
Lily had thought of calling out to him, to let him know she was on her way up, but in the end, she decided she was too annoyed to bother. She had been searching for him for over an hour now and would have appreciated a heads-up on where he was, along with the coffee he had made and left for her.
Jonas turned on the stool he was sitting on. "I said-"
"I heard you..." she cut in distractedly, her attention all on the work in progress on the painted canvas in front of him.
In fact, the whole studio was full of paintings. Even to Lily"s untrained eyes, it was obvious that the artist"s style was the same as the paintings hanging on the wall in the bedroom she was using. Bold, colorful strokes, the half-completed painting on the easel obviously of the scene outside the huge picture window.
It was beautiful.
Jonas had managed to capture every bit of color there was, the different shading of white and gray in the snow, the heavy branches of the fir trees, so lifelike Lily felt as if she could almost reach out and touch those different shades of green. Even the sky was a strange mix of shades of gray, orange, and pink. Obviously the sunrise from earlier this morning.
Which meant that Jonas had been here in his studio for some time.
Her gaze moved up to meet his. "I didn"t realize you painted."
He shrugged broad shoulders in the fitted black T-shirt. "No reason why you should."
She crossed the room to get a closer look at the painting. "You"re good. You"re very good."
"Thank you."
She glanced at him. "I meant that sincerely."
"Never said you didn"t."
"Your tone implied it."
"You"re spoiling for a fight."
Her jaw tightened. "I would have appreciated knowing where you were, but I"m not spoiling for a fight. You should paint professionally, Jonas." Her attention returned to the canvas.
"I paint to relax, not for profit."
And there was no doubting he was very relaxed. More so than Lily had ever seen him, in fact. His shoulders weren"t tensed like they usually were, and his face had fewer sharp angles this morning too. There was even warmth in those piercing blue eyes when he looked at her.
"Do you want to come outside and build a snowman?" Lily prompted impetuously.
Jonas"s splutter of laughter was completely spontaneous, and it made him look years younger. The hardness was gone from his eyes, and there were deep grooves in his cheeks, his teeth very white against his burnished skin.
"Oh, come on, Jonas," she wheedled. "I"ve been looking for you for ages, and it"s years since-"
"Since...?" he prompted at she stopped speaking abruptly.
She sighed. "When my parents were alive, we had a house in the country. My brothers are all a lot older than me, but even they used to come outside and have s...o...b..ll fights when it snowed. We moved into London shortly after my parents died. It rarely snows there, and even when it does, it doesn"t stay long."
It was impossible for Jonas to miss the wistfulness in her voice and expression.
He had seen her outside earlier from the window, but had a.s.sumed she was just exploring the immediate area. It hadn"t occurred to him she was looking for him. No one looked for or expected him. He did his job, he came home, and he owed no one explanations regarding any of his movements.
Lily was outside looking for me.
Because she knows I"ll keep her safe.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Jonas had slept fitfully the night before, and in the end had given up and risen early to start painting the sunrise. Not because he was worried they had been followed or was concerned about the snowfall. But because he knew Lily was only feet away, and he wanted her. In his bed. In her bed. Didn"t matter which, as long as he had her. He wanted her so badly, his d.a.m.ned teeth ached from where he had clenched his jaw for what seemed like hours during the night, and probably was.
This was all new to him. Spending this much time with a woman was all new to him. And he had known from the first time he looked at Lily, she wasn"t just any woman; she was special. Different.
She wasn"t in the least intimidated by his size or moody nature, for one thing-possibly a result of having grown up with four brothers who were almost as big as Jonas and certainly cynical and uncommunicative by the time Jonas met any of them for the first time. Whatever the reason, it was refreshing to find a woman who was so relaxed in his company, and he was starting to like it a little too much. Starting to like her a little too much.
Becoming any more involved with Lily than he was already was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
"Please, Jonas." She looked at him appealingly as she reached out to clasp his hands in hers and tried to pull him to his feet. "A little snowman."
He resisted that pull. "Does this wheedling usually work on your brothers?"
She grinned. "When I can be bothered to use it, yes."
"You just prefer to argue with them?"
She shrugged. "Wheedling is usually a last resort."
Jonas could understand why it worked too. There was something so impish in Lily"s expression, along with a certainty in her eyes that he wouldn"t let her down. He would bet all the Knight brothers, including Gabriel, found it hard to say no to her when she looked at them that way.
Jonas was no exception. "Okay." He freed his hands before he stood, preferring to ignore her hurt expression as he stepped away from her to wipe his paint-smeared hands on a cloth. "But only if you promise to cook brunch for us when we come back in."
"Done," she agreed instantly.
Jonas would have agreed to build six snowmen if the result was seeing her look this happy and carefree.
From the moment they met, Lily had been confronted with one trauma after another, and although she had stayed strong through all of them, they had certainly taken their toll on her. This morning, Lily looked relaxed and radiantly lovely, and although that might be taking a toll on Jonas"s self-control, he would rather see her like this than with that anxiety constantly visible in her face and the tension of her body.
He also wanted to get her out of his studio.
Like the house, painting was his refuge. The place he went to inside his head whenever he needed an escape. Having Lily follow him up here to his studio totally nullified the sanctuary he had sought from the desire he felt for her.